


It's a Long Way to Coruscant

by indescribableatrocities



Category: Little Witch Academia, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Jedi Diana, Legends Technically, Mandalorian-inspired, Pre-KOTOR Timeline, Rivals to Lovers, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28479249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indescribableatrocities/pseuds/indescribableatrocities
Summary: Diana, a member of the Jedi Order, crash lands on an unmapped planet after an engagement with Sith fighters. There she meets Akko, a mysterious backwater girl with more secrets than she lets on and an unhealthy obsession with Jedi. With the Jedi Civil War raging, Diana has to find a way to get information vital to the Republic's war efforts to the Jedi Temple, while also dealing with this distractingly obnoxious red-eyed brunette.
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 24
Kudos: 75





	1. Crash Landing

# Crash Landing

Diana Cavendish was in a bit of a rough spot.

“This is why I hate flying,” she mumbled to herself as she dodged another burst of laser fire. Her astromech droid shouted at her as a chunk of her spaceship got sent flying past the cockpit, the whole frame shuttering after the fact. Diana cursed under her breath and checked her systems. Shields, engines, and hull were pretty much gone – it was a miracle her ship hadn’t been blasted to pieces already. She took another sharp turn to dodge some more lasers, only to see the head of R-304 disappear in a flash of fire and smoke. Gritting her teeth and realizing she didn’t stand much of a chance otherwise, she manually punched in the coordinates for a planet on the other side of the system, bypassing the warning when her course took her too close to the star at the center. Using one last burst of speed to fly underneath a missile, she aligned the nose to the course she set, eyebrows lowering when she realized she was pointed straight at the star. Hesitating for just a millisecond, she started to reconsider her options before she caught a glance of the firepower headed her way.

“Damn it,” she said to herself, and punched the hyperdrive.

Diana knew that space is inconceivably huge. Even for advanced starships the size of cities, boasting hyperdrives that can traverse the galaxy in a matter of weeks, space is still absolutely massive. However, at times, it can feel oppressively small. The gas giant Diana had landed herself next to during the initial conflict was in its 11-year orbit that placed it on the opposite side of the solar system from the small habitable planet she was aiming for. The resulting hyperspace path took her, frankly, too close to the central star. When she activated the hyperdrive, if she was traveling the speed of light, it would have taken her almost an hour to get across the system. As it stood, even with a damaged hyperspace drive and an even more damaged ship, the jump was over before she even registered herself activating the drive in the first place. She didn’t even have time to blink before she was violently hurled out of hyperspace and into the atmosphere of her target.

Warning lights light up her entire cockpit as flames coated the outside. It seems Diana hadn’t quite accounted for everything when she made those calculations and had ended up a bit closer than she had intended. And was about to crash. Funny how things work out.

Gritting her teeth and clenching her legs Diana pulled hard on the stick and did her best to yank the flaming ball of plasma into a more stable trajectory. Without the time to check what systems weren’t broken, she flew on instinct, pulling as hard as she could and praying she would at least be able to see her death coming. The flames coating her cockpit meant nothing was visible and with the g-force she was pulling attempting to not die, there was nothing she could do but reach out and feel for something, _anything_ , that might bring her a moment of peace.

Thankfully for her, it seems luck was on her side today. After a heart-stopping couple of seconds, the flames died away to show a forested continent slowly dipping underneath her ship as the nose leveled out. Releasing the pressure on the stick, she leaned back in her chair and heaved a sigh of relief; only to panic and launch herself forward when the sound of alarms-still-blaring met her ears again. Remembering her training, she quickly went through the emergency checklist in her head: _Aviate, navigate, communicate_. Aviate? Check. The ship was (mostly) stable, although there was an alarming list to the left that she had to account for, and her engines certainly weren’t pushing her as fast as she wanted. Navigate? Fair. Where was she again? Diana couldn’t recall the name of the system when she had jumped here; she had been a bit preoccupied being, well, shot at. As far as she knew it was some unoccupied system off the main hyperspace lanes in the Outer Rim. Of the planet, she knew absolutely nothing, although it was covered with trees, so there was that. When she tried to find the name of the system, her nav computer threw a bunch of sparks into her face and promptly died. Blinking rapidly, she raised her eyebrows, then lowered them. _I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised anymore_ , she thought to herself. Where was she? Right. Communicate.

She reached for the comms button, set herself on the galactic standard distress frequency, then hesitated before she pressed the button – were those ships still after her? Her scanners didn’t show anything, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if those were broken. She checked over her shoulder but doing so made her ship lurch abruptly to the side, so she quickly resumed flying. After a couple of seconds, she internally shrugged and hit the comms button. If they were still after her, transmitting a distress signal wouldn’t make it any harder to find her. The cockpit was filled with static for a second before a loud _pop_ sound made Diana flinch, only to grimace at the resounding silence that followed. Okay, no communication.

She looked up from the mostly dead console to be greeted by a mountain roughly two seconds away from smashing her to smithereens. Veering sharply to the left, she momentarily forgot about the listing, and spun the ship too far. Successfully dodging the mountain, she now had to dodge the ground, which was decidedly less successful. Diana’s overcorrecting had doomed her, but she proved to make a valiant effort as she managed to right the ship at the last second.

The impact threw her against the seat restraints and cracked the front cockpit glass, eventually catching on a piece of the wing and flipping the ship several times. It tumbled, twisted, and rolled through the forest before hitting something alarmingly hard, launching it into the air. After a couple more spins, pieces of the ship flying off in every direction, the ship returned to the dirt with a final slam, rocking back on the one remaining wing before going silent. Nothing stirred in the forest, the local wildlife absent for the moment, as smoke, steam, various pneumatic gasses, and several pieces of Diana’s dignity fizzled off of the broken husk of a spaceship.

A low groan of pain escaped Diana’s mouth as she opened her eyes. Her head hurt. Her eyes hurt. Her wrist hurt, _a lot_ , and her mouth tasted like copper. The smell of burning something filled her lungs as she took a shaky breath and she instantly regretting breathing as she clutched her stomach. Definitely a rib or two broken. Still, she was alive. And upside-down. Finally recognizing that unpleasant feeling of blood rushing to her head, she hit the release of her harness a little too hard, letting out a shout of pain as she hit the already damaged ribcage, only to let out another as she fell onto the top of the cockpit with a light _thump_. Taking a moment to steady her breath and suck up the pain, she grimaced as she realized how hard it was going to be to get out of the ship.

It had flipped during her less-than-stellar landing, resulting in most of the glass being buried in the dirt. There was enough space to crawl out through the top, but she was going to have break the glass, a feat not so easily done with three broken ribs and a concussion. Seeing nothing causing immediate danger, she righted herself and painfully began to mediate.

Minutes passed, though she tried not to feel it. She had practiced meditation in stressful situations before, but this was a little more than what she had done previously; as such, it wasn’t as effective as she would have liked. Still, it was better than nothing, and it gave her a chance to think of her options now that she counted four broken ribs in between her shaky breaths.

She could lift the ship? No good. Not only was she definitely not strong enough for that, in her injured state she couldn’t see any end to that plan other than her accidentally dropping the ship on herself.

Wait for help? More attractive, but she didn’t even know if this planet was inhabited. Could be as long as forever before someone came along to help her out.

Breaking the glass and crawling out certainly wasn’t attractive but it was the best chance she had. Plus, there was the alarming amount of heat coming from the ceiling that only seemed to be getting hotter.

Steeling herself for the coming moments of pain, she opened her eyes and got herself situated. Placing two feet on the glass, she braced herself on the upside-down chair and gave a mighty kick. An optimistic crack rang out from the glass, along with a pessimistic shout of pain as Diana hit a rib wrong. Shaking her head, she bit her own tongue and prepped herself for another hit. As she redid her grip on the chair, her hand accidentally touched the metal of the console, and she let out a shout of pain as it burned her skin clean off. Looking up, she could see a fire through the floor (ceiling?) of the ship, and decided it was time to go.

Another crack, another grunt of pain, another rise in temperature.

Another crack, another grunt of pain, another rise in temperature.

On the fourth hit, the glass shattered, no doubt thanks to the damage it had already sustained. Diana dropped to the ground, holding her ribs and not making a sound. Rotating and getting on her back, she slowly dragged herself out the hole she had created in the glass, brushing some of the sharper pieces out of the way, while making sure not to touch any metal. Finally, after an agonizing minute, she was free of the wreckage, and she took the elation and surprise that came with that escape to get onto her feet and haul herself a good distance from the wreckage. When she felt she was safe enough, she turned and looked at what remained of her ship: one wing, a broken cockpit, and what looked like an engine spewing fire out the wrong direction. As she sighed and looked down at her burnt finger, she was knocked to the ground by the shockwave that flew out from an explosion taking up the space where her ship used to be.

Never a dull moment, it would seem.

Diana stared at the explosion, and then the pieces of spaceship raining down, for several minutes. She wasn’t in shock, she convinced herself; she was simply making sure that under no circumstances could anyone hope to put that ship back together. Especially herself and her rudimentary engineering skills. She nodded to herself once, then stood up straight and shook her head, letting her platinum-blonde hair out from its ponytail. Taking stock of herself, she made sure she had everything she needed. _Clothes? Yes. Injuries? Those too. Only tool I ever carry? Still, thankfully, on my waist_.

She was about to purposely walk in some direction like she had a plan when she realized that wouldn’t have made much sense. There could be valuable parts in the wreckage that would help her set up shelter, plus the explosion and her landing were certainly enough to attract anyone who lived on this half of the planet. She may have had no idea where she was or how to get anywhere, but someone else might. Wandering alone in the woods without a plan seemed like the easiest way to get herself permanently embroidered as a case study for all young women lost on planets of what _not_ to do.

Stay at the wreckage it was. Oh, and she’d have to fix her ribs at some point.

Deciding the best course of action was to deal with the immediate problems, she spent the next few hours gathering pieces of ship that were big enough to make a lean-to, covering it with leaves and moss to make it a little more presentable. Alongside the wreckage, she managed to salvage some non-destroyed supplies, giving her a few days’ worth of rations and water. Granted, all of this was meaningless if she was truly alone on this planet but going through the motions of surviving gave her a small bit of hope she didn’t dare quench.

It was turning into the evening hours when she finally laid down and was instantly reminded of the ribs she had been ignoring all day. Grimacing, and realizing she was _far_ too low on stamina to be doing this right now, she removed the front part of her robes and raised a hand over her stomach. Seeing the exposed skin, bruised and battered to all hell, gave her a slight shudder, but she pressed on, laying a hand on her stomach and feeling the broken bones. She breathed in a deep as she dared, exhaled slowly, and reached out to that familiar presence. The Force reached back, and with an unwavering but gentle touch, she felt it start to mend her bones back into place. One after another, she mended the ribs so that they were either healed or only fractured, before passing out underneath her shelter.

This was certainly one hell of a Tuesday.

* * *

Her dreams came plenty that night. Shouting from her aunt; reprimands she couldn’t remember the words to but definitely remembered the feelings of. Teachers, slipping in and out of reality, giving her praise in convoluted and contrived ways. Her master, a constant figure, yet hopelessly distant and unrecognizable. Diana had been sent to a temple at a young age, trained in both the ways of the Jedi and of the politics of Coruscant, and as such never made any real friends. Her roommates, Hannah and Barbara, were probably the closest she was going to get, but often times it seemed as though they liked each other more than they liked her. Lots of people only fraternized with her because she came from power which made it even harder to find actual friends. At the exceptionally young age of 19, she was released as a Padawan and made into a Jedi Knight, at which time her master disappeared off the face of the galaxy offering to write when she could.

Diana awoke several times that night; sometimes from the cold, and sometimes from the dreams. When dawn finally came, she was exhausted. Lost in her thoughts, amongst other things, she was taken aback by the sound of people talking close to her shelter. Diana couldn’t figure out what it was they were saying, but given her luck so far, it couldn’t be good. Staying as still as possible, she focused her senses and reached out with her feelings to the surrounding area. The voices became clear as she counted four people approaching her lean-to. They were speaking in a language Diana didn’t understand, but she could read their body language fairly well, alongside their weapons at the ready. Running through the various battleplans despite her foggy train of thoughts, she settled on one before rolling out of her cloak and standing up.

The four humans (or at least they looked like humans) all stopped talking as Diana stood up and eyed them all. They looked between each other and spoke in rapid tongues, not spending more than a second before they turned back to eye Diana, still standing tall. Diana narrowed her eyes as the leader stepped out from the group, hand on a pistol on their hip, and she snapped her gaze to their mouth as they started to speak.

“Ah wah tou, di’lam san ifis?” The figure asked.

Diana raised a single eyebrow. She saw the figure turn and chuckle at its friends before turning back and shaking their head slowly.

“Do you speak basic?” His accent was thick, reminiscent of the people Diana had run into during her travels through the Outer Rim.

“I do.” Diana decided it would be in her best interests to hold her tongue. “My name is Diana Cavendish. To whom do I owe the pleasure?” Unfortunately, it seemed her mouth had a mind of its own.

“You can call me Trask.” The figure smiled, his crooked and broken teeth showing through. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Cavendish. What’s a pretty thing like you doing near this scrapyard?”

During this introduction, Trask and his friends had slowly gotten closer. Roughly spaced out in front of her, they stopped about five meters in front. Diana had her back up against a wall- well, tree- and these people had her corned. She noted the blaster that was only on Trask’s hip, with the others carrying various improvised clubs, some of which were probably from her ship. Clearing her mind and preparing for the worst, she refocused when she heard Trask speak again.

“It ain’t nice to ignore someone when they’re speaking, lady.” His friend next to him spoke up afterwards.

“Yeah lady. Answer the question.”

Diana frowned, then raised her hand in a gentle waving motion and said, “You didn’t ask me a question. Be on your way.”

Trask furrowed his brow, appearing like he had forgotten something important, before slowly nodding his head. “Aye. Don’t think I did ask a question—“ he hadn’t even finished his thought before his friend interrupted him, drawing his pipe from his waist.

“You idiot! She’s using one of them mind tricks! Get her!” and with that, he charged Diana, swinging his club in wild fury.

Time slowed for Diana as she watched the assailant rush in, her senses stretching out and focusing on the Force that flowed around each living thing in the vicinity. The attackers outnumbered her four to one; shame they didn’t bring more, as it wasn’t a very even fight. There were a couple of other life forms around the area, but she paid them no mind as she focused on the immediate threats. While Diana certainly didn’t like violence, she was no stranger to it. During her training at the temple she almost always preferred the peaceful approach, as while her dueling was certainly proficient, it often seemed barbaric to be swinging a lightsaber at people who stood no chance. Still, there were always situations that couldn’t be resolved through negotiation and manipulation; Diana was no optimistic fool. Therefore, she was well prepared for when Trask and his goons decided it would be a good idea to attack a Jedi with a lightsaber at their hip.

Springing into action, Diana swiftly dodged to the left side of the first swing, then ducked under the swipe that the third friend swung at her head. Coming up against his side, with the four combatants now all within eyesight, she decided to let off a little stress before she ended the fight – how unbecoming. Still, it had been a rough day.

Diana let loose two punches into the third goon’s gut then immediately followed up with a large sweeping motion on their shoulder, tripping them with her foot at the same time and knocking them flat to the ground. Seeing the fourth attacker swipe down on her head, she stepped forward and grabbed their wrist before driving her other hand into their jaw. Her hand gripping the wrist twisted and spun the attackers arm around until she heard a satisfying _snap_ of bone, and she used the momentum of the spin to line them up with the first attacker coming back in, kicking the bodies together and knocking them both to the ground. She looked up, anticipating the sound of a blaster, before being stunned by the scene that had unfolded while she had been distracted.

Trask had not been simply waiting his turn to shoot Diana – he had found a hostage. A short human girl, with brunette hair in a half-ponytail was struggling against his arm as he held the blaster up to her head. His eyes locked with Diana’s, and she stopped moving as he spoke.

“Don’t move! Don’t move or she dies!” Trasks eyes were wide with fear as he took in what remained of the fistfight. The girl struggled against his arm, only slowing when the barrel of the blaster was pressed against her temple with renewed urgency. Diana raised up her hands in surrender, keeping a careful eye for Trasks itchy trigger finger.

“Okay! I’m not moving,” Diana said. “Now let her go, and no one gets hurt.” She tried to be as persuasive as possible with her words, with not much effect. A weak mind is easily persuaded by the Force, but a frantic mind can sometimes be much more powerful.

“No! No, she’s coming with me. Don’t move!” Trask shouted, pointing the gun from the girl’s head to Diana as he said her name. Diana took this opportunity to take a small step forward, resulting in Trask reaffirming the gun against the brunette’s head. “I said don’t move!” He desperately shouted. Diana paused, then realized she had enough of this man and his threatening of innocent people. Moving at lightning speed, Diana used the Force to yank the gun from Trask’s hands, sending it flying across the clearing. Stepping forward, she landed a solid punch into his face and carried herself into a tackle, successfully knocking the girl out of his arms and landing him on the ground with Diana on top. From there, a single palm strike to the temple knocked him out cold. Hearing a shout, she stood and turned around to see a worst-case scenario: the third attacker, which Diana hadn’t managed to knock out like the others, had pulled a gun from Force knows where and was pointing it straight at the girl Diana had just rescued. It seemed this one attracted trouble no matter what.

Moving on instinct, Diana darted forward, summoning her lightsaber from her belt and throwing herself into the path of the blaster, igniting it just in the nick of time. The familiar sound of a lightsaber extending was interrupted with the familiar sound of a blaster firing, the laser hitting the lightsaber with a crack as it ricocheted into the trees.

Diana stood in front of the girl, arm outstretched, lightsaber inches away from her chest and the green light showering her face, as the man stared at them both with wide eyes. Diana took the absence of blaster fire to move the girl behind her, turning and staring the man down, almost daring him to take the shot with her eyes. The man stared long and hard back at her, then narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly; however, Diana could feel his actions and see them before they happened, and internally sighed as she knew exactly how this fight would end.

A single shot rang out through the forest, only to be reflected back at its owner, hitting them dead in the chest and dropping them to the ground. Diana stood up straight, scanning around the entire area to find no remaining enemies, before sheathing her lightsaber and placing it back on her hip. Then, she turned and stared at the girl next to her, who was currently looking at the dead body with wide eyes.

Diana reached forward and placed a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulders, drawing their attention. “Are you alright?”  
The girl nodded her head gently, still seemingly in shock. Diana frowned; she didn’t have time for this. There could be more assailants on the way, and she needed to find a place to get off this rock. “Who are you?”

“Uh, Akko.”

“Okay, Akko. What were you doing just now? You almost got yourself killed.”

The girl, Akko, looked down at her hands before shuffling her feet. “You looked like you were about to get jumped by these guys, so I thought I would come in and help you out.”

Diana sighed, pinching her brow before responding. “Well, congratulations. You certainly helped someone out.” Her gaze fell to Trask, unconscious at their feet. “Do you know these people?”

Akko shook her head.

“Very well. As you can see, my ship was destroyed upon landing here. You don’t happen to know of any settlement nearby I could contact a member of the Republic?” Akko finally managed to look Diana in the eyes when she mentioned a settlement.

“Uh, yeah. I do.”

“Great. Now, I’d rather we leave as quick as we can. I don’t know if this Trask guy had friends that would be awaiting their return. Don’t worry about them, Akko; they’ll wake up in a few minutes. All the more reason to leave this place.” Diana tried to read Akko’s expression, but she still seemed to be in a slight state of shock. _Must not have been in too many fights before._

Akko remained silent, even in the face of Diana’s obvious prompts. She decided to take a more direct approach.

“Akko, I mean it. We should leave _now_ ,” Diana said, urgency lacing her voice, with perhaps some Force aiding it. It seemed to do the trick, as Akko snapped out of the trance she was in to nod her head, looking Diana in the eyes. For the first time since Diana had seen her, she finally actually noticed her; red eyes, startling in their clarity, were the first thing that drew the blonde’s attention. Next were the long legs, on display from the shorts that were not suitable for the current temperature. Her figure was generally athletic, perhaps more muscular than Diana was accustomed to seeing females with around Coruscant.

“Alright,” Akko said, knocking Diana out of her observations and into the present. “I don’t have a speeder and neither did these guys, from what I can tell, so we’ll have to walk back. Can you walk?” Before Diana could formulate a response, the girl was already talking. “Of course you can walk, that’s a dumb question. You just fought off four guys at once, why would you be unable to walk?” Diana had raised an eyebrow during this monologue but cut Akko off when she realized the woman was not about to stop talking.

“Akko.”

“Right. Uh, follow me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first installment of my Star Wars x LWA fanfic; there was a surprisingly low amount of these, and I'm in a star wars mood after Fallen Order and the Mandalorian, so here it is. Let me know what you think.


	2. Crash Landing Part 2

This had to have been the longest day in Diana’s life. This girl that she had rescued claimed that her settlement was a couple of hours east, yet they’d easily been walking for half a day without getting any closer. After the first couple of minutes, and the non-stop barrage of questions, Diana had quieted down – not that it had any impact on Akko. The girl had not stopped talking since they left the wreck. Those blissful moments when she was still in shock from the firefight seemed eons ago, and Diana reminisced on those sweet memories before she was brought out by yet another one of Akko’s questions. Figuring that she had to keep at least a working relationship with her companion until she could leave her behind, she turned to Akko with a sigh of great reluctance, a gesture once again lost on the young girl.

“Yes, Akko? Could you repeat that?” Diana prayed to whatever she could that Akko would take a hint.

“Oh! I asked if you had ever seen a giant sand worm!” Akko replied cheerfully. Diana sighed again.

“No, I haven’t,” she started. “I hardly doubt ‘giant sand worms’ exist anyway; I’ve certainly never read of them.” Diana didn’t want to be too arrogant, but she was incredibly well studied, much more than this isolated child would be. Plus, if the past few hours were anything to go by, this girl didn’t seem too bright. Sure, there was intelligence in those red eyes, and she had the charisma to carry a conversation alone, but Diana couldn’t see her being any more educated than some sub-horizon dweller in Coruscant. Her train of thought was once again interrupted by Akko – that tended to happen a lot recently.

“Well, maybe the Jedi don’t teach you everything there is to know, ya know? I read about them in a book, by the way. Got it off the holo-net. Fascinating stuff really, and they say it’s all true! Desert planet complete with giant sand worms to boot. Something about ‘fear the mind killer’ – I’m going to be honest with you,” she said in a whisper, “I never actually finished it. I’ve got a terrible attention span. Don’t really know what it is, but I could never sit still long enough to be able to read them. Funnily enough, as a kid, I could read books _all the time_ , but now that I’m a big old 19 years I can’t read ‘em for any longer than an hour. I get too distracted! I’ve got sparring training, other things to read, work, more work, and _so much work_ that I just don’t have the time! Maybe if they made the books more interesting, like a romance novel about a Jedi and a—” she was rudely interrupted by Diana for the nth time that afternoon.

“Akko.” Her voice was calm, yet there was an edge to it that made Akko instinctively shut up to listen.

“Yes?”

“Stop. Talking,” Diana practically whispered through clenched teeth. Her patience had dried up more than a dune sea on Tatooine an hour ago, and she was one monologue away from throwing her lightsaber at the brunette and starving to death in the forest.

Akko, for once in her life, seemed to read the room accordingly, and with a small ‘okay’ went quiet.

 _Finally_ , Diana thought. _Some peace and quiet_ -

“Oh hey, we’re here!”

_I’m going to kill her._

Diana looked up to draw her lightsaber only to find that Akko hadn’t been lying this time; they had actually arrived.

The town was small. It was probably a couple dozen single-story buildings of various wooden construction. It didn’t seem to have a unifying theme and was probably what the locals had put together without any proper architectural design. The buildings were all relatively new from what Diana could tell, which meant the culture was a roaming one. There was a well in the center of the town, and very little high-tech gear. A couple of speeders sat in one lot next to a building with a large porch, tied to the fence poles with old rope. The denizens went about their day for the most part, with only a couple stopping to take notice of Diana as she strolled into town. Understandable, for the most part; her cloak was not a traditional one, and it hid her Jedi robes underneath well enough, leaving her mostly inconspicuous. Akko led her through the center of the town, past the speeders, to one particularly rough looking wooden shack.

“… and this right here is home sweet home,” she said while opening the door. “Come in, come in!” With that, she disappeared through the doorway, leaving Diana alone on the street. She hesitated, looking around to see if anyone had noticed her. Seeing a couple of curious faces staring in her direction, she ducked her head and stepped inside.

Entering the shack was a whiplash-inducing experience. While the outside had been run-down, hastily constructed, and unplanned, the inside was a different story. At the entrance was a soft mat made out of some synthetic weave material, with two pairs of shoes placed on the edge. The rest of the house was raised about four inches off the ground, and the wooden planks were neatly laid out in rows. It was one room, with a stove in one corner and bed in the other. A bookshelf held a collection of, surprisingly, paper books, though most showed some serious signs of wear-and-tear. A wooden model of a Republic starfighter sat on top of the dresser alongside a… hilt of a lightsaber?

“Diana?” Akko asked, her head tilted to one side as she stood in the center of the room.

“Yes?” Diana replied, eyes returning to Akko. _There’s no way_ , she thought to herself.

“I asked if you were hungry.”

“I’m not,” Diana’s stomach grumbled at the lie, but she continued, already having dug herself into her early grave. “What I really am is anxious to get to a spaceship. Or a spaceport. Or, at this point,” and she glances around the room as if she could see the rest of the town, “I’d settle for a communications tower. You don’t happen to have one of those lying about, do you?” Diana’s voice got more and more pointed towards the end of her speech, so much so that Akko winced when Diana finished.

“Uh, we don’t have a tower here in town; the closest one is probably at North Point, a couple of days walk from here. That’s where I was going to bring you too next.” Akko then fished something out of a cupboard and threw it on a hotplate, sprinkling salt on top. “I was just super hungry, and I figured you would be as well, so I thought getting some food might be nice. Plus I’ll have to pack for the hike.”

Diana, meanwhile, had stopped listening after “a couple days walk”. She didn’t have time for this. The war was raging on, with or without her, and given what she learned, the Republic was losing – seriously losing. The Sith army had come out of nowhere, overpowering their main fleet in the drydocks and leaving the Republic scrambling for the past year. Diana had been contracted, as a respectable member of the Jedi order, and without a padawan or master, to disappear behind enemy lines and siphon off intel. The mission had been going well until recently, when she had been discovered and forced to run, which ultimately led her to crash land on this planet. Speaking of which…

“Akko,” Diana cut off whatever Akko was saying. “Where am I? What is this planet called?”

Akko, for her part, took the interruption in stride, and answered the question right away. “You are on the planet Secath, and this town we call Home. Didn’t you know what planet this was before you crashed?” Diana shook her head.

“Forgive me, but there wasn’t exactly time to check where my ship was before I had crashed,” her voice dripping with sarcasm. Akko either ignored it or didn’t notice.

“Ah, fair enough. Are you sure you’re not hungry?”

“No. I’m fine. Can we get moving?”

Akko paused; her food halfway shoved into her mouth. “Uh, I’m gonna eat first, no offense. It’s a long walk, after all. Hey, are all Jedi this anxious all the time?”

Diana glared hard enough to blow holes through Akko’s head. “They are when they need to return to the temple. Haven’t you any sense of urgency?”

Akko chewed and swallowed before responding. “No, not really. Not much happens around here that’s time sensitive; well, other than the Dragon, but that’s not really—”

“The what?”

“—a _time sensitive_ issue more than a _timed_ issue—”

“I’m sorry, did you say _dragon_?”

“—Since he only shows up about once a month.”

“Akko.” For the first time since she started talking, Akko glanced down from the ceiling to Diana.

“Yea?”

“Did you say there was a dragon around this town?” Diana’s voice held a significant amount of incredulity, as one could expect from a well-studied Jedi. After all, dragons don’t exist.

“Well, that’s the word we use for it, at least. The elders have a word in their language, _tatsu_ , but in Basic we call him a dragon.”

“Dragons don’t exist, Akko,” Diana said. She was honestly quite exasperated at this point. The fact that when she was talking, Akko didn’t eat, was also starting to grate away at her short patience to the point of drastic action. She needed to get off this planet, and this girl wasn’t getting her anywhere anytime soon.

Akko just smiled and finished her lunch, dusting off her hands and setting the plate to the side. “Alright! Now I just got to pack, and we can be off,” she said, beginning to gather several piles of camping supplies, clothes, and spare rations. Diana took this time to ask her a few more questions; ones that might get her a faster route.

“There were speeders outside the building in the… well area of the center. Why can’t we just take one of those? It’ll be faster.”

“Can’t. Those belong to the Proprietor.”

“And who is this ‘Proprietor’?”

“He owns the cantina here in the town.”

“And we can’t borrow one because…”

“Because he won’t let me near them.” Akko pauses in her packing to rub her neck sheepishly. “I kinda… crashed one? I didn’t mean to! It was a shoddy model anyway, and the controls were all over the place, and one thing led to another and maybe I was going a _bit_ fast for the terrain, but I thought I was in control and the next thing I knew I was thrown from the speeder in a ball of fire.”

Diana took the run-on sentence in with wide eyes before shaking her head slowly. “Figures I’d rescue the one idiot who couldn’t get me a speeder,” she mumbled under her breath before standing up and making for the door.

“Uh, Diana? Where are you going?”

“To get me a speeder,” she said, before closing the door behind her with a slam.

* * *

The Last Wednesday Society was a shoddily built cantina, much like the rest of the town, and definitely the worst establishment Diana had to willingly set foot in for a long time. Half a mind had her hand subconsciously close to her lightsaber, while the other half scanned the room. Being midday, she expected no patrons, but instead found a substantial group of workers amidst a heated discussion; the dozen figures around a circular table all turned to her in silence when she entered.

Diana closed the door.

Nodding once to the group of workers, she approached the bar and sat down at a stool, waiting for the barkeep to walk over. He was a large human, wide but not tall, with a hairy goatee that covered his double chin and long, flowing locks down to his shoulders. He looked warily to the patrons at the table before glancing to Diana and making his way over.

“Not from around here, are you ma’am?” he asked.

“No, I’m not.” Diana responded. “I’m in need of some transport, and I noticed the speeders outside your fine establishment.”

His eyebrows rose at her statement, and he looked towards the patrons once again. Diana turned to follow his gaze, landing on a male figure in a poncho. He stood up, and slowly walked around the table to sit next to Diana at the bar. The tavern was unnaturally silent; not even a chair squeaked. Diana, not one for being intimidated, simply stared into his eyes as he took a drink from the bartender. The man was grizzled, with a face full of gray hair and old, old eyes. He made eye contact once he set down his cup, sizing Diana up and down before looking back center and speaking in a low, gravelly voice.

“Now… what brings a Jedi this far off the beaten path, hm?” His accent was thick, reminding her of Trask, and she narrowed her eyes.

“My ship crashed here last night. I was being pursued by Sith soldiers, and they managed to get the better of me. This morning, I was attacked by a group of thugs, led by a man called Trask,” she paused and looked at the figures at the table to see if the name sparked any reactions. Seeing none, she continued her story. “And in fighting them off, I rescued a girl named Akko, who then took me here.”

The man next to her smirked at the mention of Akko and the workers behind him chuckled to themselves. “Aye, she’s a troublesome one, that Akko. Never where she’s supposed to be.” Another chuckle. “So, you were shot down, and now you need to…” He left the end of the sentence blank, looking expectantly towards Diana.

“Now, I need to return to the Jedi temple on Coruscant. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a war going on, and I’m needed as soon as possible.” At this, the figures visible stiffened, and the man next to her shook his head slowly and took another drink from his cup. He looked over to Diana again, seeing that she had opened her cloak to reveal her Jedi garb.

“My name is Bokan,” he said after setting down his drink. “I’ve lived on this planet my whole life, as has my entire family. Countless times this planet has been overlooked by the Jedi. Countless times we’ve called for aid and received nothing in response. I doubt we even exist on your galactic maps; after all, what do we have that we could offer the Republic? Despite appealing time and time again, we were denied access into your political system because of our limited resources and backwater tendencies. Secath has been a beacon for traders wandering off the beaten path, and we’ve grown as a community through the trade that we earned, despite the Republic denying us. And now that the Sith are encroaching on our system, we’ve got half a mind to let them in with open arms. After all, the Jedi and their Republic have done nothing for us when we’ve asked for so little.

“So, tell me Jedi: why should we help you? Would you have helped us, helped me, if the tables had turned?”

Diana hesitated when she responded. “Yes – of course I would help you. Jedi are peacekeepers of the galaxy.”

“Yet you carry a weapon of war on your hip.”

Diana narrowed her eyes and glared Bokan. “I’m not here to discuss politics, Bokan. I just want a speeder to the nearest spaceport. You _do_ have one of those here, correct?”

Bokan looked her up and down before snorting and taking another swig. “Aye. Walking, it’s a week-long trip.”

“And by speeder?”

“Who says you’re gonna get one?”

Diana sighed. This was a waste of time, she realized. Nodding to Bokan and the group behind him as she got up, she said, “I suppose I’ll have to walk. I appreciate the hospitality. I’ll make sure to note it on my report to the council.” With that, she turned and walked towards the door, only to run into a brunette coming in from outside.

“Wait!” Akko shouts into the room. Bokan sees her, scoffs, and turns back towards the bar. Unperturbed, Akko continued. “Bokan! We could use her!”

Diana rose an eyebrow, then turned to look at Bokan. He shook his head, still not looking at either of them, and said nothing. Diana took the unspoken queue and started to walk out of the door before being stopped by Akko’s hand on her wrist.

“I mean it! She could solve this whole dragon problem for us! She’s a Jedi, after all!” Akko said to Bokan. At this, he slowly turned, glaring at the both of them.

“What could she do that we haven’t tried? She’ll just make it worse.” His voice was cold, but Diana could feel a glimmer of hope approaching his demeanor.

“She could use the Force! You’ve read of the stories, same as I have! Please, just let her try!” Akko pleaded, her hand still on Diana’s wrist.

Bokan narrowed his eyes, then looked towards the group of workers at the table. One of them spoke up in a language Diana didn’t know, but he sounded amicable. The other workers nodded in agreement and Bokan turned around to the bartender. He shrugged his shoulders, then whispered some things Diana couldn’t quite make out. Bokan nodded once, then turned back to Akko.

“Fine. But you’re going with her, Akko. Make sure she actually takes care of the problem. Jedi, if you return, I’ll allow you to borrow a speeder. Make haste; your precious war rages on, after all.” With that, he turns back to the bar, sipping on his drink.

Diana nods, then turns to leave, dragging Akko behind her when the girl didn’t move.

“Hey. Hey! Diana! Stop, that hurts—ow! I said stop!” Akko wrenches her wrist free, then speed walks to keep up with Diana’s long strides. “Where are you going?”

“I need food.”

* * *

After eating, Akko took her on a walk to visit the lair of the supposed dragon. Diana wasn’t concerned; there were strange examples of wildlife throughout the galaxy, but there was hardly a problem a Jedi wasn’t capable of solving, especially one of her skill and stature. It was to be a simple mission: find the dragon that spooked these locals, scare it off with some loud noises, and get a speeder to the spaceport. In all likelihood, it was something more akin to a massive bear-type creature, and Diana was confident in her ability to manipulate the simple-minded beasts. Her specialty was in the Force while she was training, and although healing was her most proficient ability, having a strong connection to the Force allowed for many strategies.

Akko had been uncharacteristically quiet on the walk over. She had continued her relentless onslaught of questions and stories while Diana had eaten, but had since kept to herself once they set out. She kept nervously glancing about, startling at noises of branches cracking and birds chirping. It only bolstered Diana’s arrogance, however; Akko was simply overreacting to what she remembered of the creature and was anxious because she was afraid and ignorant. The unknown is the most terrifying of foes, after all.

“Akko, have you ever actually encountered this so-called dragon?” Diana asked her when she watched Akko flinch at nothing for the third time.

Akko looked up at her, before nodding her head. “Yeah, couple of times. He comes around once a month, stomps through the village, then leaves.”

Diana nodded her head once, then started scanning the forest while carrying on the conversation. “And what can you tell me of this beast? Anything useful?”

Akko thought for a couple of minutes, so long that Diana had to glance over to make sure that she actually heard her question. “Well… we don’t talk about it much,” she said. _Figures_ , Diana thought to herself.

“But… it’s as big as the cantina. Huge mouth, wings, and a big tail. It comes and raids the village, but it never takes any food. Couple of years ago, before I came around, it would steal the tech stuff in the warehouse. But, since I’ve arrived, it’s never actually taken anything, not even food. We haven’t even seen it in a few months.”

Diana nods her head again. “You say it never takes food. Why did it attack your village then?” Akko jumps again at the sound of a bird singing loudly, then glances around before responding. She makes sure to stay a couple of steps behind Diana, walking in single file.

“I’m guessing because of the stuff they kept in the warehouse. We don’t have it anymore, though,” Akko said. Diana huffed, figuring whatever she learned was going to be the last bit of useful information before she encountered the dragon.

“How close are we?”

Akko stopped, looked around the forest, then took out an old paper map and rudimentary compass from her bag. Diana waited impatiently while Akko compared the two, before looking up the game trail they had been following.

“I’d say… five minutes. It hasn’t been seen around in a while, like I said; could be a chance it left,” Akko said, packing her bag again.

“Good. Then I won’t have to fight it at all, and you can take me to the spaceport. Let’s go.” Diana took off down the trail, leaving Akko to catch up.

The next five minutes passed slowly, with Akko still being jumpy as ever, and Diana getting increasingly frustrated at her companion. Her movements were distracting, and she had been annoying Diana since she’d rescued her this morning. Akko increasingly kept her hand on the hilt of a hunting knife strapped to her belt, and on the umpteenth time she jumped at a noise, Diana turned on her.

“Will you stop that?! There’s nothing here that can hurt you! Much less a dragon!” Diana shouted at Akko, causing the other girl to jump again, this time facing Diana. She shrunk back under the verbal assault, looking down at her shoes.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But this place gives me the creeps. We don’t go to this side of the forest for a good reason.” Diana simply rolled her eyes, glaring at the girl in front of her. Since Akko stood a few inches shorter, Diana’s presence in this moment was rather intimidating – not to mention the status advantage she held over the rural planet-side girl.

“Well, quit it. It’s distracting. There’s nothing to be fearful of in this forest,” Diana said, watching Akko quietly nod her head, before turning around and continuing to walk. She heard Akko’s footsteps fall in line behind her as she turned a corner on the trail, coming across a massive cave entrance coming up out of the ground. Akko gasped a little, but at a glare from Diana, she took a deep breath and pointed to the cave.

“That’s his lair, we think,” she said.

“Good. Stay here; this should only take a moment,” Diana said, before turning around and dropping her cloak to the ground. Taking her lightsaber hilt from her belt, she edged her way closer to the cavern entrance, taking scope of the area around her.

The clearing centered on the cave was about a hundred feet across, with no trees or underbrush at all. There was stone and rocks spanning from the center to the edges, only turning to grass at the base of the trees surrounding the cave. The clearing was relatively flat, with the cave entrance about thirty feet wide, disappearing at a steep angle into the ground. The cave was dark aside from the sunlight illuminating the entrance, and with one last cursory glance around, Diana hopped down into the cave.

It was dark past the sunlight – almost unnaturally so. Still, Diana pressed forward, deeper into the abyss. Using the Force, she could observe her surroundings with incredible precision, so she never lost her footing, and she reached out with her feelings to anything that might be living in the cave. Diana couldn’t see – not literally – but by using the Force she could get close enough. It was one of the few techniques her master had actually made an effort to teach her before she disappeared.

Delving deeper into the darkness, Diana continued to explore the cave. It was dry, and devoid of almost all living things. As she continued, the tunnel never shrank in size more than a couple of feet, maintaining its thirty-foot diameter throughout its length. After what felt like several minutes of walking, Diana felt a presence drawing near to her. It was massive, from what she could tell, and soon after she could hear its footsteps. Settling herself into a fighting position, Diana ignited her lightsaber, the vivid green glow illuminating most of the chamber around her and forcing her eyes to quickly adapt to the now light cavern.

What stood before her was something out of a fairy tale: a massive dragon, complete with crooked wings and jagged claws, stood roughly fifteen feet in front of her, its neck stretching down to stare with two large, beady, lizard-like eyes. Its teeth were easily the size of her wrist, and while it wasn’t big enough to fill the diameter of the tunnel, it was still the size of a small starship. Its eyes reflected the green light back into Diana’s own and it opened its mouth to let out a massive roar in her face, the air that was expelled shoving her several feet backward.

Diana brought her saber forward, and with a single deep breath, took her fighting stance and stared the beast down – only to be knocked back by a tail coming out of nowhere. Diana managed to dodge the brunt of the blow, the Force warning her just in time, but she was still thrown dozens of feet down the cave, landing on her side and dropping her saber in an attempt to right herself. Coming to a stop in a crouch, she looked up to see the beast barreling towards her; thinking fast, she launched herself upward towards the roof of the cave, summoning her lightsaber at the same time, and shoving off the roof when the beast ran below her.

Landing on its back with a small gasp, she grabbed on tight to its scaly and spiked skin, holding on for dear life as the dragon screamed and roared, twisting as much as it could in the confined space. Diana waited a moment to become in-tune with its movements before sensing a lull, drawing her lightsaber once again to drive it down into the spine of the beast. It sank to its hilt, the green light disappearing underneath the skin as the dragon roared in pain. Sensing victory close at hand, she leapt off of the dragon and landed in front of it, getting ready for a fatal blow, before she saw it slowly limping backward.

She smirked to herself, recognizing a job well done, before standing up straight and reaching out to stop the beast from retreating. The dragon, however, did not retreat – it instead started to twist and turn in unnatural ways, its skin bubbling underneath the scales, and its eyes going wide. Diana watched, horrified, as the dragon grew in size, expanding at least five feet in all directions by the time it stopped twitching and swung its gaze to Diana once again.

“Damn it,” Diana whispered to herself.

Then she turned and ran.

Akko was sitting at the mouth of the cave entrance when she heard the roaring of something massive coming tunnel. The sounds echoed and were heavily distorted, but she thought she could hear the familiar lightsaber noise alongside several screams, both of beast and women. After a painstaking dozen seconds where Akko paced back and forth, debating whether or not to run into the cave and look for Diana herself, she saw the woman in question running out from the cavern at top speed. With a massive leap, Diana climbed the last thirty feet of cliff at once, and landed next to Akko, her lightsaber drawn, and body thoroughly scuffed up.

“Oh my gosh, what happened to you?!” Akko asked, eyes wide as she heard the sounds of what she now recognized as the dragon fast approaching.

Diana grabbed Akko’s arm with her free hand and started sprinting away to the game trail. “Run you fool!” As she shouted this, the dragon emerged from the cave entrance, letting out a massive roar when it saw Diana and Akko. Diana, sensing something bad about to happen, grabbed the collar of Akko’s poncho and ripped her to one side. Throwing them both to the ground, she watched the dragon let loose a wave of fire, burning a fourth of the clearing’s edge to cinders.

Diana rolled to her feet, unsheathing her lightsaber once again, and stared down the dragon as it approached the two of them. Sidestepping the tail swipe that had caught her off-guard the first time, she brought her lightsaber down with two hands on the end of the tail, intending to sever it in two. The green blade passed straight through its intended mark, but the tail remained in-tact. As Diana backed away and looked up, she could see the dragon making familiar movements throughout its body and watched as it expanded another five feet in all directions, growing even bigger as it silhouetted itself against the midday sky.

Akko got up next to her, watching the dragon with wide eyes, before saying to Diana, “Oh yeah, and it can do that.”

Diana couldn’t spare her a glance, but she could spare her incredulous words. “You mean it can absorb a _lightsaber_ and you neglected to tell me?” Akko flinched out of the corner of her eye at the venom of the sentence.

“Well, I didn’t know if it would do that with a lightsaber. Does it with blasters though, that’s why we could never get rid of it ourselves.”

Diana clenched her teeth and furrowed her brow, letting out the deepest sigh she could while still breathing normally. “Akko.”

“Yes?”

“Get out of my way.”

Akko shuffled back slowly, keeping her eyes on the dragon, before she considered that Diana might be more of a threat at the moment, and nodded her head.

“Good luck,” Akko said.

“I don’t need it,” Diana replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not as many editing passes on this one, so let me know of any mistakes.


	3. Crash Landing Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meant to post this one yesterday, but instead I slept another three hours, oh well.

Diana quickly ran through the possible battle strategies in her head. The beast could absorb blasters and lightsabers, so that meant all energy weapons were out of the question. Diana had tried to use the Force on it, and while at the time it had little effect, she didn’t sense any resistance or sensitivity. Akko carried a knife on her belt, which was currently Diana’s best option for dealing damage. Unfortunately, she didn’t know where to stick said knife – the creature was massive, with scales that were as hard as steel covering the majority of its body. The weakest parts, notably the eyes and mouth, were understandably hard to reach.

Diana still didn’t consider it a dragon.

Acting fast, Diana sheathed her lightsaber and clipped it onto her belt before diving to the side to avoid another blast of fire. She rolled to a crouch and summoned a rock to her hand before pelting the lizard right behind the eye. With a roar, it turned and stared her down. Confident she held the beast’s attention, she lunged forward, sliding underneath a claw by a couple of inches before launching herself up and over its head. Landing close behind, she jumped over the tail as it turned around to face her and took off running around the center of the clearing.

The monster saw it prey escaping its grasp and roared in frustration. It leapt forward, slamming a massive claw down onto the ground and spraying rocks in all directions before it realized its quarry had once again dodged out of the way.

Diana, after narrowly avoiding becoming a pancake on the ground, made it to Akko’s side with the beast far enough behind to offer a moment of peace. Not saying a word, and ignoring the brunette’s wide-eyed and open-mouthed expression, Diana took the knife from Akko’s belt, then paused when she heard a squawk. Rolling her eyes, Diana was about to reprimand the girl before she felt her pursuer move behind her. With no time, she simply threw both of them to the ground as a tail passed inches above their heads, the beast roaring with rage when it realized it had missed again.

“Didn’t I tell you to get out of my way?” Diana shouted into Akko’s face before rolling to the side to get to her feet.

“I- what? _You_ tackled _me_!” Akko retaliated, before getting up on her own and sprinting off in the opposite direction.

Diana spared her a glare before turning back to her prey. It was about fifteen feet from her, carefully eying her as it prepared its next move. It seemed to have learned from its previous mistakes and was taking its sweet time to advance. Diana maintained the distance between them as it stalked forward before it launched a series of fast, but regulated, slams onto the ground.

Feeling the Force flow through both her and the beast, Diana sidestepped the three consecutive slams, each one missing by inches, before jumping above a swipe and landing on its wrist. It reared up onto its hind legs, preparing to throw Diana across the clearing, but the Jedi moved faster than it was expecting. She dropped as it raised its arm above its head and landed on the monster’s neck, knife still clutched in her right hand as she gripped onto a spine with her left. She slid to one side before activating the vibration of the knife, slamming it into the spot right behind the massive lizard’s eye. Diana held on tight as it let loose a ground-shaking roar of pain, and she didn’t have time to react before it unfurled its wings and took off into the air.

Seeing the ground disappear from beneath her gave her a little more unease than she would have liked, and she held on tighter as the two of them began to climb.

Over the next couple of seconds, Diana and the monster fought in a battle of attrition; Diana to maintain her grip and retrieve the vibroknife, and the beast to get this pest off of its back. While the Jedi had the benefit of the Force, she was fighting in unknown territory and was massively inexperienced in fighting beasts like the one she was riding. Unfortunately for her, the flying lizard was in its home, and it became alarmingly apparent that Diana was losing the battle.

Several foot swipes, a couple of whole-body shakes, and one massive flap of the wings later and Diana was off the creature, plummeting towards the ground. It let off a roar of success before diving down to finish its meal.

The blonde closed her eyes as she fell, breathing in deeply, before spinning around and facing the ground. She only had a couple of seconds before impact – she had to act fast. Reaching out, she felt the whole world slow around her as she focused on herself and the canopy below her exclusively. Using the Force with the limited stamina she had left, Diana redirected her fall in slight increments over the span of a couple of seconds. Adjusting only a few inches at a time, she positioned herself over a select grouping of trees, knowing that the branches would be enough to break her fall. Reaching out with her left hand, she focused on the first branch she would have to grab onto, letting the Force flow into her from all directions—

Until the monster promptly swallowed her whole.

* * *

Akko, after angrily sprinting away from that tackle, had stopped at the edge of the clearing to see Diana wielding something familiar: a shiny, rather small, hunting knife. Looking at her own belt, Akko let off a grunt of frustration at being pickpocketed mid-fight. The least the Jedi could have done was ask, after all. Looking across at the game trail, Akko started to stealthy walk towards it, all while watching the fight commence.

Diana’s form, contrasting her attitude, was something of beauty. Akko had seen the occasional holomovie, so she wasn’t unfamiliar with watching people fight, but seeing it in real life was an entirely different experience. Diana fought differently from anything Akko had ever seen; not a movement was wasted, from the way her feet pivoted back and forth, to the way her head stayed locked on to the dragon throughout every movement. It was like watching a dancer, not a warrior.

Akko watched with amazement as Diana climbed his claws like a monkey before dropping onto his head, stabbing him with the knife. She also watched with amazement as the dragon took off into the sky, taking Diana with him.

“Diana!” Akko shouted, running into the clearing after the dragon disappeared above the canopy. Taking off in the direction he was flying, Akko ran as hard as she had in her life. _This Jedi is insane!_ she thought to herself, shoving past underbrush and climbing over fallen logs to try and keep pace. Catching glimpses of the two of them struggling through the leaves, Akko pressed even harder, willing her legs to carry her faster. She glanced up again and saw Diana launched from the dragon’s side and start plummeting to the ground. Akko stared until she tripped, crashing into the ground in a tumble of limbs and branches. Righting herself, Akko looked back up before letting out a scream as she watched the dragon dive down and swallow Diana whole before crashing into the trees in front of Akko.

The dragon impacted the ground with a massive explosion, sending a wave of dirt and moss in all directions. The whole forest shook with the collision, and Akko had to cover her face and duck in order to escape the worst of the debris. Unfortunately for her, the dragon had smashed into several trees as it crashed, and Akko didn’t have the time to escape as a tree slammed down on top of her, knocking her flat to the ground and trapping her legs. Akko let out a scream of pain that tore through the remainder of the aftershock as she desperately tried to move her legs. The tree had missed her torso, but it seemed she sacrificed her legs for that particular stroke of luck.

Whimpering in pain and trying futilely to escape, it wasn’t until Akko saw a shadow cover the sunlight that she glanced upward, only to stare into the eyes of a very angry dragon. His yellow eyes narrowed in disgust, snorting in her face, before he opened his mouth and prepared to bite down. Akko never thought she’d die like this, nor did she think her death would have smelled so terrible. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the dragon to finish the job –

Only to open them to watch him pause in his ministrations, eyes defocusing as he glanced elsewhere. He made a strange choking sound, before stumbling backward a few paces, out of Akko’s vision. The brunette sat there, wide eyed and fearful, only able to listen to the sounds that the dragon was making from behind the tree. There were a couple of footfalls, heavy but uneven, before she heard a massive snapping sound as a tree slowly tumbled out of her vision. Then, a strange and muffled _pkshhh_ sound came from where the dragon was convulsing. The dragon roared in pain as he stumbled around the forest floor before being interrupted with a sharp humming sound that became abruptly clearer. _Wait a minute_ , Akko thought. _I’ve heard that sound before_.

The noise of a lightsaber filled the forest, and while Akko couldn’t see the green light, she could hear the familiar cries of it whipping around in the air, as well as the roars of pain from the dragon. After a couple of moments, she heard one final cry before the entire forest went silent. She sat there for a few moments, listening to everything she could, before a head popped over the tree under which Akko had been trapped.

Diana looked like she had been through Hell. Her hair was matted, torn in some places, and covered with a disgusting odor. The smell emanating from her made Akko unintentionally gag – it was the worst combination of rotten food, vomit, and burnt flesh she had ever had the displeasure of smelling. Further down, Diana’s Jedi robes were torn and burnt in places, with a weird green liquid dripping from them. Akko could also see small burn marks all over the Jedi’s skin, but was drawn away from her outfit by the piercing blue eyes glaring daggers into her.

 _If looks could kill_ , Akko thought.

* * *

“You idiot,” Diana said, leaning over the fallen tree to stare at the brunette girl lying on the ground. “Do you have any idea how close you got to being crushed by this thing? No doubt the beast almost had its way with you as well. Do you ever think before you act? No, don’t answer that – I am well aware you do not. I had the situation completely under control, yet you almost got yourself killed regardless.” Diana was positively fuming, daring the girl underneath her to respond.

“You were falling from the sky! What was I supposed to do, wait around and see if you’d come back?” Akko shot back, glaring up at her self-proclaimed savior.

Diana narrowed her eyes at the girl talking back to her. “What were you supposed to do? I don’t know, maybe _as you’re told_? If you hadn’t so foolishly chased after me, you wouldn’t be in this position right now, and I wouldn’t have to waste valuable resources rescuing you for the third time today.” With that, Diana drew back behind the log, out of Akko’s vision, before turning around and focusing herself. Attempting to let go of the hostility, frustration, and anger flowing through her veins, she reminded herself of the Jedi mantra: Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, and suffering leads to the dark side of the force. However, letting go of her anger was proving to be more difficult today than it had been for a while.

Hearing Akko whimpering behind her wasn’t helping in the slightest.

Diana thought back to her training. The countless hours she spent meditating in the grand halls of the temple on Coruscant, the room of a thousand fountains smelling of fresh dew in the early morning. She thought of the present, of the birds chirping in the midday sky, the sunlight drifting down through the canopy, and the ever-present sounds of a foolish little girl crying in pain from beneath a fallen tree.

With an uncharacteristic shout of anger, Diana released her pent-up emotions in one fell swoop, turning around and throwing the tree off of Akko. She felt herself swell with the dark side as she let her emotions control her actions. All of the feelings she had bottled up and held contained for the past three months suddenly found themselves free to escape in an explosive fashion. The fallen tree, which must have been a hundred feet long, found itself thrown up into the canopy of the nearby forest, shattering upon impacting its brethren.

As the splinters rained down, Akko turned in fear to see Diana, hunched over, clutching her head. She made to move but was painfully reminded of her two broken legs keeping her locked in place.

“Diana?” Akko’s voice was shaky from the multitude of emotions coursing through her, and she held her breath awaiting a response, sniffling as she attempted to stop her tears.

Diana held her head in her hands, attempting to stop the vicious headache pounding through her. She had never, in all her years at the temple, let that much emotion through. With the stress of her mission, the knowledge she carried, the suicidal girl in front of her, the crash landing, and all the events that followed, it had been too much for her to handle. Diana was shocked at herself, and honestly, scared as well. This was how people turn to the dark side of the force, and Diana made a promise to herself then and there that she would never, ever, let her emotions get the better of her. _I have to be stronger_ , she thought. _I have to be what they taught me to be_.

Releasing her head and looking up at Akko, she took stock of the situation logically, as she was trained to do. Akko looked like her legs were injured, and Diana’s wounds could be dire without proper medical attention. It was a couple of hours walk back to the village at a brisk pace, and there was only half a day’s light left.

“Diana?”

“Yes?” Diana responded, making her way towards Akko. The girl flinched in response, subconsciously. Diana stopped walking.

“I’m sorry for my… outburst, Akko. I promise I meant no harm to come to you,” she said, putting her hands to her sides, palms open. “Please, allow me to apologize. It is most unlike me to display such un-Jedi-like traits. I suppose the past few days finally caught up to me.” She paused. “I promise, it will never happen again. Now let me see your legs – I am a healer, after all.”

Akko regarded her suspiciously for a few moments, before lowering her head and sniffling again. Diana took it as a sign, and slowly approached the brunette, crouching down to investigate her legs. While she was no stranger to blood and gore, having been trained as a combat medic for a large majority of her apprenticeship, she grimaced slightly at the state of the other girl’s legs. They had been caught at just the wrong angle by the tree, and one of them had a significant amount of blood pouring from multiple wounds.

Rolling up her damaged sleeves, Diana focused herself, finding it much easier the second time through, before she embraced her natural ability to heal. Letting the Force flow through her and Akko, she directed it to the injured body parts, ignoring her own pain as she forced the wounds to close and seal themselves. The biology’s of different species have different healing processes, but Akko was practically human, which made the process much smoother.

After several minutes of healing, Diana awoke from her trance. She looked up to see Akko’s legs fixed and back in their respective positions, bones seemingly aligned and wounds vanished, although with some scarring present. Diana sighed in relief, and while she was never surprised at her ability to heal, she was grateful whenever she managed to solve a problem by doing so. Looking up at Akko, she noticed something odd about the brunette’s face: there were two of them, to be precise.

“Akko,” Diana starts, making to stand but managing to fall back onto her bottom instead. _That’s strange_ , she thought. “Akko, why are there two of you?”

Both Akko’s turned and cocked their heads at once, a concerned expression plastering their faces. “Diana? Are you okay?” they both asked, getting up on their now working legs to reach out a hand to the fallen blonde.

“I’m fine Akko, I-“ she felt a wave of nausea pass through her before her vision became increasingly blurry. “I’m going to fall unconscious now.” And with that, Diana fell over backwards and hit the ground.

* * *

Akko was panicking.

A lot had happened in a very short amount of time. Yesterday, she was foraging for the village when she saw a starship fly overhead and disappear into the horizon. She spent the following night hunting for the wreckage, getting very little sleep in the process, before stumbling upon a _freaking Jedi_ about to be attacked by some ruffians from a neighboring town. She tried to intervene, only to get kidnapped and held hostage, only to then be saved by said Jedi, only to then be berated for attempting to help her, only to then offer her village as a safe spot and way off of Secath.

With absolutely no knowledge of whether her village was safe or a way off Secath.

Then, after hours and hours of stiff conversations and awkward moments led by Akko, she finally managed to bring the Jedi home, only to get the cold shoulder as Diana ignored her attempts to bring her to the spaceport. After all of that, Akko had gotten Diana a chance at a speeder (read: volunteered for a suicide mission), watched a Jedi fight a dragon and freaking kill it while almost getting killed by the same dragon and then the same Jedi, before getting to watch a Jedi use the Force up close and personal on her _own two legs_.

Suffice to say it had been a busy few days.

Bringing herself back to the present, Akko remembered that she was panicking, and for a good reason; Diana had passed out in front of her, still covered with bloody bruises and purple wounds, with dragon guts pasted in all sorts of places throughout her torn and disheveled outfit. Thankfully for herself and her partner, the brunette did know some basic first aid, so she steeled her nerves and got to work.

The first thing Akko did was jump around the clearing for several seconds, reveling in her healed legs and generally being amazed at the abilities that Jedi possess.

The second thing she did was sprint back to the clearing and grab her bag.

Coming back to Diana, Akko opened up the med kit she brought that Diana insisted wasn’t necessary and got to work cleaning, disinfecting, and bandaging the various wounds over the blonde’s body. _‘It’s only going to slow us down’ my ass_ , she thought, frowning at the arrogant words. She’d have to remind Diana when she woke up who to be thankful for treating her.

Done with the obvious wounds on the arms and shins, she realized there were quite a few more underneath Diana’s clothes, so she started to undress her before pausing, then blushing. Sure, Akko had only known Diana for a couple of hours at most, but she was undeniably beautiful. Long, fluffy, currently nasty platinum blond hair with tea-green highlights; skin, paler than Akko’s by a significant amount, and when they were open, icy-blue eyes, much like the sky on a bright summer day – or perhaps an ocean (Akko didn’t know, since her planet didn’t have one).

Akko stopped observing the other girl when she realized she’d been staring at her face for far too long.

Blushing nonstop, Akko continued the steps of disrobing the Jedi in front of her, praying to whatever’s out there that she wouldn’t wake up randomly. Once she had Diana down to her underclothes, Akko set to work on bandaging the various wounds around her torso, collarbones, and thighs, sometimes closing her eyes to finish the job without combusting.

A few agonizing minutes passed where the only sounds in the forest were the occasional small creature singing, and Akko diligently bandaging wounds. Finally, she managed to patch up the last of the cuts and leant back on her heels to wipe the sweat from her brow. Letting her eyes pass over her handywork, Akko gave herself a pat on the back; for someone with only basic levels of first aid, she thought that she did a pretty bang-up job. Then she gave herself a pinch in the cheek to stop her gazing, which had turned into staring. She got up to move Diana before she realized she would need to put the clothes _back_ on her.

Shit.

Akko spent the next five minutes blushing furiously, again, as she re-clothed the unconscious Jedi in front of her.

 _Now_ she was ready to move. Putting on her backpack and tightening the straps, Akko lifted Diana onto her back in a traditional fireman’s carry and started walking home. Since it was past noon, Akko picked up the pace a little more than what was comfortable in order to make it back before night. Of course, living a gatherer’s lifestyle on a larger-than-average planet led to Akko having significantly better physique than most city-dwellers, and if Diana were awake, she would notice the girl’s endurance as almost rivaling her own. Of course, Diana wasn’t awake – she was asleep on Akko’s back. Because of her position, Akko had to hold onto the Jedi’s legs in order to keep her balanced, a fact she would be reminded of for the next six hours.

 _It’s a long way to home_ , Akko thought.

It was after sunset when Akko arrived at her house, depositing Diana on her bed and making herself a small dinner. It was after dinner when she checked on her passenger, keeping tabs on her temperature and breathing. It was after bedtime when Akko stayed up on the floor, staring into the ceiling, and thought about all that had happened.

Regardless of Diana’s attitude so far, Akko was hopeful. She was naturally optimistic, sure, and some would say naïve; but Diana’s arrival had brought something Akko would have thought impossible without her. Since she was a child, Akko read of the stars and dreamed of travelling there one day. Stories of heroic space battles between the Jedi and the Mandalorians, stories of star-crossed lovers defeating all odds to be together, and action-adventure novels of a miscellaneous crew finding their way through a treacherous galaxy. Those were her favorite. Tales of adventure, of crazy findings and deadly encounters, each one seemingly bigger and more dangerous than the last.

Of course, such a life was out of reach for any lowly planet girl with a weekly allowance of half a credit. Akko didn’t visit Secath’s spaceport that much anymore out of a depressive reality she had found herself in – she used to visit every week as a kid, but as she grew, she realized that her dreams of exploring the galaxy were out of reach. Now, being around the spaceport just made her jealous and sad.

That isn’t to say Akko didn’t have plans to achieve her dreams. She was nothing if not persistent and stubborn. She definitely hadn’t given up on them; she was simply waiting for the right opportunity. After a dozen attempts, some of which almost didn’t fail, Bokan had convinced her that she would have her chance, she just, “needed to find the right moment to strike”.

With a sleeping Jedi on her bed, this was Akko’s moment. Her only hope was that, somehow, she could convince Diana to take her, which was not going to be an easy task.

Sleep came late that night.

* * *

In the morning, Diana awoke to the smell of eggs and something meaty. Blinking rapidly and sitting upright, she immediately noticed a few things: one, she was in Akko’s house. Two, Akko was cooking breakfast on the hotplate. Three, she had been sleeping on a bed, and four, her clothes were in tatters. Looking down at all of the exposed skin she was showing, Diana grabbed her cloak from the top of the dresser and quickly threw it over herself, preserving her modesty. Akko didn’t notice her movements, apparently preoccupied with something on a data pad while she was absent-mindedly stirring the pan.

Taking the few moments of silence that were sure to disappear soon, Diana thought of obvious: how did she get here? All she remembered was carving up the overgrown lizard from the inside out, an unprecedented emotional outburst, and her healing Akko. After that, the day was a mystery. However, in remembering her outburst, she started to mentally berate herself. Never before had Diana lost composure, much less to the degree of actually feeling the pull of the dark side. She surmised that the crash, the months leading up to it, and the events of that day were just the water boiling over the top of the pot. Therefore, she came to the obvious conclusion that she hadn’t been holding the lid on tight enough.

The council and her master had drilled the Jedi code into her head so many times it was hard to go a waking moment without remembering it. _There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; There is serenity. There is no death; There is only the Force._ Again, and again, Diana meditated on this code, pressing its words into her mind. The one she settled on the most was regarding emotion, for obvious reasons.

One of the few things her master had been good in teaching her were various ways to deal with problems of the self, should they arise. It had been a long time since Diana had to employ them – she had established a mask for herself early on in her life, resulting in most events being taken with dignity and the same emotionless face. This greatly benefited her, but she worried during periods of self-doubt that keeping all of her emotions bottled within herself would lead to mistakes down the road. Her master had assured her this was not the case. Scoffing out loud, Diana shook her head. She was being foolish. The outburst was caused by releasing some of her emotions, so understandably, Diana needed to never do it again. She was brought out of her meditation by Akko’s voice.

“Diana? You’re awake,” she said. Diana looked up to see the other girl staring at her, two plates in her hand with breakfast loaded on top. She offered one to the Jedi, who took it reluctantly.

“How did you sleep?” she asked.

“Fine, thank you. Akko,” Diana started, pausing to watch the brunette swallow an impossibly large bite of food before continuing. “Akko, how did I get here?”

Akko opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Diana shooting up a hand to stop her. “Please, don’t talk with your mouth full.” Akko rolled her eyes. Diana kept her hand up. Akko swallowed.

“I carried you,” she said before taking another massive spoonful. Diana quickly looked Akko up and down, then raised an eyebrow.

“You carried me?”

“I carried you.”

“I apologize for my unfamiliarity with this planet’s local dialect and slang. Now, stop being facetious.”

“I’m not joking, Diana. I carried you all the way back. Got here before bedtime, too.”

“Akko, you must forgive me for being suspicious, but you don’t really look…” Diana let the sentence trail off, hoping she would be able to pick up her meaning.

“Don’t look…” Akko looked expectantly at the other girl.

Diana sighed.

“You don’t look especially strong, Akko. I highly doubt you could carry me all the way back.”

“What do you mean? I look plenty strong! See?” To emphasize her point, Akko flexed her biceps, showing a fair amount of muscle – certainly more than Diana was used too, but nothing incredible. Diana glanced under the table at the girl’s legs, however, which told a different story.

It was no matter. She wasn’t getting anywhere anytime soon, so Diana dropped the topic and moved to the more pressing matters.

“Moving on, did you grab anything from that beast?”

“Dragon.”

“Did you?”

Akko shook her head, scrunching her eyebrows to give Diana a look. “Why would I have? It was pretty disgusting, honestly,” Akko said.

Diana sighed again. “Because I will probably need to prove I killed it, and they’re not going to believe you and I,” she explained, planting her face in her hands before raising it again. “You’ll have to come with me. Is Bokan in the cantina?”

“Uh, not now. It’s breakfast time. He’ll be out in the yard in half an hour, probably.”

“Then we shall wait.” With that, Diana stood up, stretched herself, then looked down at her disheveled clothes underneath the robe. “Actually, Akko, do you have a spare set of clothes?”

“Uh, for you?”

Diana bit her tongue to hold back the response she had prepared and instead nodded her head. Akko turned and dug around in her dresser for a bit, tossing out random clothes from the drawers.

“Uh, not here… these won’t fit… hmmm… ah, here!” She turned and tossed a pair of trousers and a beat-up t-shirt at Diana. “Try these on!”

Diana looked at the clothes in her hands, then back up at Akko. “Very well. Do you mind?” she asked, gesturing to the other girl.

“O-Oh. Yeah, yeah,” she said while turning around. Diana turned around as well, shedding her clothes and stuffing herself into Akko’s. Frowning a bit, she turned around and called Akko to do the same.

“How do they fit?” Akko asked.

“They’re a bit… tight.” Diana said as she looked down at the clothes. She returned her gaze to see the other girl blushing before the Jedi turned around and headed towards the door, picking up her cloak as she went. “Come on, then. Let us acquire me a speeder.”

“But breakfast!”

Diana raised her head to the sky and took a very, very deep breath.

“Fine.”

The yard was a series of ancient lumber mills, each one filled to the brim with massive trees. The trees were all several feet across, and at least fifty feet long, stacked up in a dozen pyramid piles across the clearing. Diana and Akko had waited for about twenty minutes before Bokan arrived with a group of workers behind him, all splitting off to the various mills while Bokan approached the Jedi.

“I did it,” Diana said. Bokan raised an eyebrow.

“Did you now? And what has become of this _tatsu_?” His voice was low and gravelly, and he took a drink from the canteen he had at his side.

“It’s dead. She saw me finish it,” Diana said, gesturing to Akko.

Akko nodded her head a couple of times, looking up at Bokan. “It’s true! She cut him from the inside! It was awesome! I couldn’t really see it, since I was crushed under a tree the whole time, but she got swallowed by the dragon, then he landed and was about to eat me before he started backing up and making weird noises, then I heard a big _sksssss_ and _hmmmmm_ and a couple of bright green flashes and poof! He was dead!”

Bokan kept his face neutral during Akko’s explanation, patiently waiting for her rant to end, and sidesteps one of her hands that goes a little too far during her description. Diana, who hadn’t been paying attention, had to bat the hand out of her face before it smacked her upside the head.

Bokan then asked Akko a question in a language Diana didn’t understand. Akko stopped mid-gesture and sheepishly nodded her head. Bokan’s response was curt.

Akko then responded in the same language, gesturing to Diana before looking at her and blushing slightly. Bokan chuckled at this, causing Akko to let lose another rant in his direction before he put up his palm, silencing her. He turned to Diana, eyeing her up in down in a way that made her stand taller than usual.

“Jedi. What will you do when you return to Coruscant?” Bokan’s face was serious, and his voice carried a heavy weight.

“I don’t believe that’s any of your business,” she responded.

Bokan shook his head. “If you want a speeder, then aye, it’s mine.” Diana met his gaze with a glare of her own, attempting to win him over through intimidation. Bokan was not impressed. Considering her options, sure, she could pull out a lightsaber and force him to submit, or trick his mind into getting what she wanted, but Diana had an uneasy feeling that honesty was the best way out of this situation. Plus, the odds of Bokan being a Sith spy were practically zero. Practically.

“When I return, I will report the findings of my mission to the Jedi Council. They will then determine my next course of action.”

Bokan gave her a gaze she couldn’t place, and then turned to Akko and said something in their language. Akko replied instantly, with a single-word answer. Bokan asked another question, leaning in close to her, and while Akko took a little longer to answer, she evidently gave an answer Bokan was happy with. He then turned back to Diana and began talking in basic.

“I will allow you, Jedi, to take one of my speeders to the spaceport here and acquire transport to Coruscant. When you reach the port, mention my name to the woman in charge and she will get you a ship. While I don’t like your kind and don’t agree with what you stand for, I must respect your actions here. You’ve done a great service to this community, and a deal must not be forgotten. Oh, and Akko’s coming with you.”

Diana silently took in all this information before hitching on that last sentence. “Of course; someone has to return the speeder, after all,” Diana replied, forcing a smile.

Bokan let out a large laugh at this, shaking his head with mirth and bending over to his knees. Diana turned to Akko, who seemed as perplexed as she was.

“What is he laughing at? Was it something I said?” she whispered to the brunette.

“I don’t know! I don’t think so,” the brunette whispered back.

Bokan settled, letting out a few errant chuckles before looking at the two of them with a gleam in his eyes that gave Diana chills down her spine. _I’ve got a bad feeling about this_ , she thought.

“No, young Jedi. Akko’s coming with you to Coruscant.”

“ _What?!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, let me know of any edits I missed. Probably going to try to do Sunday posts from now on? We'll see how that works out lol


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